The Benny Hill Show

Benny Hills career took off with The Benny Hill Show in 1955 on BBC Television. Recurring players on his show during the BBC years included Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Hawk, Peter Vernon, Ronnie Brody, and his co-writer from the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Dave Freeman. He remained mostly with the BBC through to 1968, except for a few sojourns with ITV station ATV between 1957 and 1960 and again in 1967. In 1969, his show moved from the BBC to Thames Television, where The Benny Hill Show remained until cancellation in 1989, with an erratic schedule of one-hour specials. The most common running gag in Benny Hill's shows was the closing sequence, which was literally a "running gag" in that it featured Benny Hill and other male characters lecherously chasing scantily clad female characters, who would usually end up turning the tables and chasing Benny. This was commonly filmed using stop motion and time-lapse techniques for comic effect. The tune used in all the chases, "Yakety Sax", is commonly referred to as "The Benny Hill Theme". It has been used as a form of parody in many ways by television shows.